One Million Steps: A Marine Platoon at War (33 page)

Approaching sector P8Q.
(Bing West)

Lts. Tom Schueman, William Donnelly (KIA), Cameron West (WIA), Victor Garcia.
(Lt. Victor Garcia)

LCpl. Juan Dominguez’s wedding. (
© Nelvin C. Cepeda/U-T San Diego/ZUMA Wire
)

Lieutenant Colonel Morris and Sergeant Major Bushway.
(Lt. Col. Jason Morris)

Will Murphy, executive editor at Random House, combines two remarkable skills. First, he can sense the major themes of a book before the writer has uncovered them. Thus, Will is able to provide guidance that saves the author a huge amount of time and angst. Second, Will moves at rapid speed in the editing process, not hesitating to point out what is trite or poorly written. Mika Kasuga, as assistant editor, is super efficient. She follows through on every task, keeps every deadline, and keeps accurate track of a draft in its convoluted iterations as I daily or weekly change what I have previously submitted. Fred Chase edits sentences and paragraphs with a dexterity that captures the essence of a narrative’s arc. London King is always full of good cheer and shrewd advice as she arranges interviews
about the book. In sum, in the writing, editing, and publishing of book after book, it is a pleasure working with the Random House team.

Teresa and Mark Soto teamed with Patty Schumacher, mother of LCpl. Victor Dew (KIA), to edit an excellent compendium of articles about the fallen, entitled
The Story of the 3/5 Darkhorse Marine Battalion in Sangin, Afghanistan
. Similarly fine work about Helmand Province was done by Ed Marek on his website, Talking Proud. Special thanks to Jim Binion, Matt Abbate’s stepdad, for his understanding and support.

Conversely, official sources proved disappointing. The command chronology of the battalion could not be found, and the military mapping bureaucracy stoutly resisted sharing unclassified maps readily accessed on Google. Worse still, all records of troops in contact—indeed, practically all written communications during the Afghanistan war—were transmitted via a classified network called SIPRNet. All data were automatically stamped Secret. While the Pentagon provides generals and former secretaries of defense access to the records and expedites declassification, this courtesy is not provided to civilian historians. This means that a generation of writers will lack access to basic materials. My special thanks, then, go to 3rd Platoon and Kilo Company for taking the time each evening in the field to keep a hand-printed, unclassified diary of the day’s events.

On a personal note, I extend my heartfelt thanks to my loving wife, Betsy. I know she has wondered over the years about luck and odds, yet never once has she expressed apprehension. Trip after trip, book after book, she is encouraging, understanding, and supportive.

(To the Semper Fi Society of St. Louis, November 13, 2010)

Nine years ago four commercial aircraft took off from Boston, Newark, and Washington, with men, women, and children—all innocent, and all soon to die. These aircraft were targeted at the World Trade Towers in New York, the Pentagon, and likely the Capitol in Washington, D.C. Three found their mark. No American alive old enough to remember will ever forget exactly where they were, exactly what they were doing, and exactly who they were with at the moment they watched the aircraft dive into the World Trade Towers on what was, until then, a beautiful morning in New York City. Within the hour 3,000 blameless human beings
would be vaporized, incinerated, or crushed in the most agonizing ways imaginable.

In the darkest times Americans seek refuge in family, and in country, remembering that strong men and women have always stepped forward to protect the nation when the need was dire. Our enemy fights for an ideology based on an irrational hatred of who we are. We did not start this fight, and it will not end until the extremists understand that we as a people will never lose our faith or our courage. America’s civilian and military protectors both here at home and overseas have for nearly nine years fought this enemy to a standstill and have never for a second “wondered why.” They know, and are not afraid.

Their struggle is your struggle. They hold in disdain those who claim to support them but not the cause that takes their innocence, their limbs, and even their lives. As a democracy—“We the People”—and that by definition is every one of us—sent them away from home and hearth to fight our enemies. We are all responsible. I know it doesn’t apply to those of us here tonight but if anyone thinks you can somehow thank them for their service, and not support the cause for which they fight—America’s survival—then they are lying to themselves and rationalizing away something in their lives, but, more importantly, they are slighting our warriors and mocking their commitment to the nation.

Since this generation’s “day of infamy” the American military has handed our ruthless enemy defeat after defeat. But it will go on for years, if not decades, before this curse has been eradicated. We have done this by unceasing pursuit day and night into whatever miserable lair Al Qaeda, the Taliban, and their allies might slither into to lay in wait for future opportunities to strike a blow at freedom. America’s warriors have never lost faith in their mission, or doubted the correctness of their cause.

Yes, we are at war, and are winning, but you wouldn’t know it because successes go unreported, and only when something does go sufficiently or is sufficiently controversial, it is highlighted by the
media elite that then sets up the “know it all” chattering class to offer their endless criticism. These self-proclaimed experts always seem to know better—but have never themselves been in the arena. We are at war and like it or not, that is a fact. It is not Bush’s war, and it is not Obama’s war, it is our war and we can’t run away from it. Even if we wanted to surrender, there is no one to surrender to.

Our enemy is savage, offers absolutely no quarter, and has a single focus and that is either kill every one of us here at home, or enslave us with a sick form of extremism that serves no God or purpose that decent men and women could ever grasp. Given the opportunity to do another 9/11, our merciless enemy would do it today, tomorrow, and every day thereafter. If, and most in the know predict that it is only a matter of time, he acquires nuclear, chemical, or biological weapons, these extremists will use these weapons of mass murder against us without a moment’s hesitation.

I don’t know why they hate us, and I don’t care. We have a saying in the Marine Corps and that is “no better friend, no worse enemy, than a U.S. Marine.” We always hope for the first, friendship, but are certainly more than ready for the second. If it’s death they want, it’s death they will get, and the Marines will continue showing them the way to hell if that’s what will make them happy.

It is a fact that our country today is in a life and death struggle against an evil enemy, but America as a whole is certainly not at war. Today, only a tiny fraction—less than a percent—shoulder the burden of fear and sacrifice, and they shoulder it for the rest of us.

The comforting news for every American is that our men and women in uniform, and every Marine, is as good today as any in our history. While some might think we have produced yet another generation of materialistic and self-absorbed young people, those who serve today have broken the mold and stepped out as real men, and real women, who are already making their own way in life while protecting ours. They know the real strength of a platoon.

It doesn’t matter if it’s an IED, a suicide bomber, mortar attack,
sniper, fighting in the upstairs room of a house, or all of it at once; they talk, swagger, and, most importantly, fight today in the same way America’s Marines have since the Tun Tavern. They also know whose shoulders they stand on, and they will never shame any Marine living or dead.

The chattering class and all those who doubt America’s intentions and resolve, endeavor to make them and their families out to be victims, but they are wrong. We who have served and are serving refuse their sympathy. Those of us who have lived in the dirt, sweat and struggle of the arena are not victims and will have none of that. Death, or fear of death, has no power over them. Their paths are paved by sacrifice, sacrifices they gladly make … for you. They prove themselves everyday on the field of battle … for you. They fight in every corner of the globe … for you. They live to fight … for you, and they never rest because there is always another battle to be won in the defense of America.

We Marines believe that God gave America the greatest gift he could bestow to man while he lived on this earth—freedom. We also believe he gave us another gift nearly as precious—our soldiers, sailors, airmen, Coast Guardsmen, and Marines—to safeguard that gift and guarantee no force on this earth can ever steal it away. Rest assured our America, this experiment in democracy started over two centuries ago, will forever remain the “land of the free and home of the brave” so long as we never run out of tough young Americans who are willing to look beyond their own self-interest and comfortable lives, and go into the darkest and most dangerous places on earth to hunt down, and kill, those who would do us harm. God Bless America, and …

SEMPER FIDELIS!

Lt. Gen. John Kelly

OCTOBER 2010

NOVEMBER